In a small town, there sits a house at the top of a hill. Mystery surrounds the couple that lives there. What the town doesn’t know is that they are vampires. One night, Scarlett and Corbin decide to take a slave. Some of the townspeople decide to uncover the secrets of the house, starting with that man’s ex-fiancee, Naomi.

Once she learns the truth, she becomes a target. Even her brother Wesley thinks she’s gone insane, but he soon discovers that there is much more to the story. He finds that he is the very spectacle of Scarlett and Corbin’s schemes. He and a band of unlikely friends must unite to save the town, and the world along with it.

The fog suddenly consumed him and he screamed as loud as he could. When everything was clear again, he saw that he was in a house. He was in a room that was lit by candles. The walls were covered in red wallpaper and the curtains were black.

The room struck him as being old. The decorations weren’t normal. There were skeletons and things that looked like claws, cauldrons and crystals. There was at least one cross on every wall. What was this place and how had he gotten there?

As his mind filled with worried thoughts, two people came into the room. One was a man and the other was a woman. The man was very handsome. He had dark brown hair and captivating brown eyes.

Abel couldn’t look away from them and he didn’t know why. He managed to tear his eyes away from the man and look over to the woman. She was one of the most beautiful brunettes he had ever seen. Her hair was long, well past her shoulders. Her lovely brown eyes matched the darker shades of her hair.

“Hello, Abel,” she said with an excited smirk.

How did she know his name? “He…hello…”

“Do you know where you are?”

He shook his head.

“Do you know who we are?”

He shook his head again.

“You’re going to be our new slave,” the man said, “My name is Corbin, and this incredibly sexy creature is Scarlett.”

Abel now noticed that he was laying on a bed. He sat up and cushioned his back against the pillows, forcing himself to remain calm until he knew what was happening. “I beg your pardon?”

“You are going to be our slave.” Scarlett said this slowly, as if he was deaf or stupid. She was mocking his confusion.

“This woman has no patience.” Corbin smiled admiringly at her. “Allow me to explain. We…are vampires. Now, we’re fairly new because she’s only one hundred years old. I’m two hundred years old. Nothing, really, compared to most vampires we know. Just the same, we’ve worked hard and wanted to reward ourselves with a servant.”

Abel put his hand to his forehead to check his temperature. He didn’t have a fever. He sat there a minute, waiting for his head to start spinning. He had to be drunk out of his mind. That was the only explanation for this nonsense. “Vampires don’t exist…they aren’t real…”

“Everyone has the same reaction.” Scarlett sighed. “They say that vampires can’t be real, they drive themselves crazy trying to block out what they’re being told. Then we have to prove it to them.”

Corbin smiled widely. The grin revealed two sharp fangs. Abel gasped in horror and looked over at Scarlett. She had fangs too. She was right; he was trying to block out what he was being shown. This couldn’t be real.

“You’re not sick,” Corbin said, taking a step closer to him, “You’re not drunk and you’re not dreaming. You could call this a nightmare, except that it’s real.”

“Before you become our permanent slave,” Scarlett began, “We have to have a taste test.”

“A–a–a…taste…test?” Abel’s heart was racing again. He said it wasn’t a dream, but it had to be. These things only happened in books and movies.

“Yes!” she said excitedly. “We have to see how sweet your blood is.”

Abel tried to scramble out of bed, but Corbin was at his side in a flash and holding him down with one finger. He was obviously of enormous strength. Scarlett was now sitting next to him on the bed.

Laurencia Hoffman is the author of five published books; Casting Stones, A Wish for Remembrance, Wages of Sin: Bad Blood, Bittersweet, and Star Crossed: Worlds Apart (published under her legal name: Jolene Poole).

Laurencia lives with her family in Michigan. When she’s not writing she also enjoys making her own line of natural products, and watching films.